With Individual Mandate Dead, Employer Mandate May Be Next On the Chopping Block

What’s the story?

Republican lawmakers accomplished a long term goal of repealing the individual mandate to carry health insurance via the tax reform bill in 2017. In 2018 they are turning their sites on the employer mandate, which supporters claim is integral to keeping premium costs and government subsidy costs down.

Critics claim the employer mandate is "a job-killer, a wage-killer, and a business-killer" that is obsolete now that the individual mandate is gone.

Under the Affordable Care Act, companies with more than 50 employees must offer health insurance, and report information to the IRS about what, if any, insurance they offer and what the value of it is. Eligible employers who do not offer insurance with "minimal essential coverage" may be subject to penalties.

The New York Times estimates that thousands of businesses have been levied fines in recent months because they did not have plans in place to satisfy the mandate in 2015, when it went into effect. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that employers will have to pay up to $12 billion in penalties this year, and as much as $20 billion over the next decade.

One piece of legislation, HR 4616, co-sponsored by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) and Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA), seeks to suspend the employer mandate and cancel any prior assessed penalties.

Another piece of legislation, HR 4695, co-sponsored by Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-OR) and Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY), covers a wide variety of issues, including the employer mandate. It seeks to revise the mandate to only cover businesses with at least 500 full-time employees, and to define "full-time" as 40 hours a week, as opposed to the 30 under current law.

What do you think?

Should the employer mandate be left in place, revised or repealed?

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— Asha Sanaker

(Photo Credit: Wikimedia / Creative Commons)